Judges

Michael Moore is Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Michael and his colleagues are focused on supporting the development of the private capital industry, as it invests in thousands of businesses and supports millions of jobs across the UK. As policymakers work on the competitiveness of the UK’s investment climate, Michael is confident that private equity and venture capital will continue to create significant public value through investment in growth, innovation and people. Over the past 30 years Michael has operated at senior levels in both politics and business. In his political career he served in the Cabinet at the time of the Coalition Government, as Secretary of State for Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for 18 years. After the 2015 General Election, Michael became a Senior Advisor at PwC. Prior to entering politics, he qualified as a chartered accountant with the firm.

Deirdre Mc Gettrick is the founder of the UK's #1 furniture search and comparison platform ufurnish.com. Bringing together 1m+ products from 100+ furniture retailers all on one website. ufurnish.com saves time, money and eliminates the fear of missing out on undiscovered items. Clicking out, the consumer buys directly from the retailer.

Alpesh B Patel OBE, Dealmaker in Department for Business and Trade, Barrister turned hedge fund manager, Former Visiting Fellow in Business, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, Financial Times author and former: Bloomberg TV presenter, CNBC Co-host, BBC Business commentator and Financial Times columnist. Founder, Campaignforamillion.com to teach a million people worldwide how to invest better to add an extra million into their pensions over their lifetimes.

Tamara founded Social Element in 2002 and has grown the agency to become a 300+ people strong and award-winning business that helps some of the world’s biggest brands including OREO, Visa, Smirnoff, Nissan and Dr Pepper thrive on social media. Tamara is also co-founder of Polpeo, a crisis company that creates realistic and immersive crisis simulations that prepare teams to communicate successfully in a crisis. She is a Fellow of The Marketing Society, a previous Drum’s CEO of the year and also recognised in Campaign Magazine’s 40 over 40 and Campaign’s Inspirational Women CEO of the Year in 2024. Tamara is the co-host of The Genuine Humans podcast, a board member of Media Pride and is regularly featured in the Outstanding Top 100 Global LGBTQ+ Executives list.

Gregory is a McInroy & Wood Board Member and Investment Director based in London. He has over 26 years' experience in investment management. Prior to joining, Gregory was Co-Chief Investment Officer and Head of Investment Research at the listed bank, Arbuthnot Latham in London. For the past decade, Gregory has been frequently quoted by the major media outlets such as Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the FT discussing macro-economic affairs and financial markets. He formerly held positions with Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer.

Dora is an advisor and executive coach to CEOs working with some of the fastest-growing tech startups & scaleups in Europe. She brings scalable, practical, and tried-and-tested tools and approaches to help CEOs drive better performance. Previously, she spent over a decade in Silicon Valley and London in leadership roles at Google, YouTube, and SoftBank, where she helped to scale the operations and the team from 4 people to 200+. She is also a qualified leadership coach (HBS) and transformational coach (Animas), a certified facilitator of EverythingDisc and 5Behaviors, and a former co-founder of a psychometric startup. Dora is on the Advisory Board of a few startups, on the judging panel of Go:Tech and Scale-up Awards and one of the mentors of the scaleup program ‘Future Fifty’ by Founders Forum / Tech Nation.

Alex brings a wealth of experience from the tech business realm, having previously led a division of the Zoopla group and established a prosperous digital marketing agency. Renowned for his visionary mindset, Alex possesses a remarkable ability to transform ideas into ambitious and highly profitable ventures. Motivated by a desire to support fellow entrepreneurs, he founded Sparton Danzig with the goal of empowering them to thrive in their endeavours. With Alex’s guidance and expertise, entrepreneurs can unlock their full potential and achieve remarkable success

Joanna was a BBC Apprentice Final five candidate in 2017. Her background and experience is in marketing as an Agency Development Manager on behalf of Google, an independent digital marketing consultant and currently co-founder of digital marketing agency 'So 93' in Leeds. Along with her team, she specialises in helping business grow through Google Ads, Social Media and Motion Graphic video production. She remains a weekly current affairs commentator for national television and radio broadcasters; with credits for BBC News, Sky newspaper review, and ITV's Good Morning Britain. With a passion for civil society as well as business, Joanna is a board member for Impact Education Multi-Academy Trust, English Speaking Board International and is Goodwill Ambassador for water poverty charity Pump Aid.

John is an investor & Non-Executive Director, providing value-added business growth advice, guidance and mentoring to business owners. John is a business thought leader and delivers keynotes on a range of entrepreneurial, management & motivational leadership topics: www.johnstapleton.eu In 1987 John co-founded The New Covent Garden Soup Co Ltd pioneering the fresh soup category in the UK – successfully exiting in 1998. John then brought the fresh soup concept to the US – co-founding Glencoe Foods in 1998. In 2005, John co-founded Little Dish, which supplies healthy, natural and convenient meals and snacks to children over one year old – successfully exiting in 2017.

Pip Jamieson is the Founder and CEO of The Dots, a member app acclaimed by Apple as ‘Networking for the modern world’. Having developed the technology and grown The Dots to over 1 million members, Pip now licenses The Dots as a White Label member club app (https://the-dots.com/white-label-app) empowering the world's most discerning member clubs, co-working spaces and branded communities to foster their own networks. Partners include Apple, Soho House’s ‘Works’ community, 180 Studios, Frieze Art Fair and Dazed Media. Pip’s innovative approach has earned her recognition as one of The Sunday Times’ Top 100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs innovating in their respective fields, one of Founders Forum’s Inspiring 50 Women in Technology, and by Adweek as one of the top trailblazing leaders having a positive impact on the world. She’s delightfully dyslexic

As a Founder, Director and CIPD qualified consultant, Richard supports leadership teams to create winning transformational strategies, trains managers to get the best performance from their teams and develop the capabilities of sales teams to accelerate their performance and results. He runs an in-house top team accelerator for scale ups called Dragonfly Academy, a listed programme with the Scale Up Institute to elevate leadership, team and business development capabilities for sustainable growth. More recently, Richard has been appointed Scale Up Ambassador for the Institute of Directors and is the Founder of Tech West England Advocates, supporting West England Scale Ups and the regional eco-system.

Award-winning entrepreneur and bestselling author of WIN!, Donna O’Toole is the founder of August Recognition - a top global awards agency. Named one of the world’s Top 25 Customer Experience Influencers, Donna has helped hundreds of businesses, brands, teams and leaders across the world to create high-impact commercial and cultural results by achieving valuable recognition for their achievements.

Anthony is co-founder and CEO at SeedLegals, a legaltech platform that lets startups and investors complete the legals needed to build, grow and fund their business, at a fraction of the cost of using a law firm. Around a third of all early-stage SEIS/EIS funding rounds in the UK are now done on SeedLegals. Anthony’s career has included 3D graphics, P2P music, internet video, social TV and online communities. In 2015 Anthony founded 6Tribes, a world of communities based on shared interests. 6Tribes was acquired less than a year later. Previously, Anthony co-founded Beamly, a social and content network for television, which was acquired by Coty in 2015. Known as “The man behind BBC iPlayer”, Anthony ran the iPlayer and other BBC services from 2007 to 2010, taking the iPlayer from pre-launch to major success story.  Anthony’s patent portfolio includes patents for distributed online rewards, content discovery and interactive television.

Founder and MD of YUnique Marketing Ltd, Jarmila Yu, is a globally ranked Top100 CMO, a Chartered Marketer, and a Top50 Business Advisor. A multi award-winning businesswoman, Jarmila is passionate about forging strong links between business and education, and is a champion for developing marketing excellence.   Having spent 25 years building her career in companies ranging from start-ups to some of the world’s largest brands, she then established her marketing consultancy in 2016 making it her mission to provide the CMO Advantage to support ambitious SMEs to achieve dramatic results and growth. She has since guided multiple companies to grow from start up to scale up and scale up to major player in their segment.   A frequent awards judge and mentor, she speaks at events and is featured in business and marketing publications, sharing her expertise and encouraging entrepreneurs to leverage the power of excellent marketing and communications, whilst supporting marketing talent development to enable them to unlock their potential to drive economic growth.    Jarmila proudly serves as Chairman of the Surrey Branch of the IoD, the International Advisory Board at the School of Business & Management at Royal Holloway University of London and the Talent Committee at the DMA.

John is a distinguished Futurologist and an ardent advocate for neurodiversity, leveraging his own experiences with ADHD and Dyslexia to promote inclusivity in both professional and academic environments. He is passionately committed to volunteering with organisations such as Speakers for Schools and The Prince's Trust. Through his personal initiative, Opportunities for Youth, John offers valuable advice and guidance to students aged 14-18 who face similar neurodiverse challenges, empowering them to recognise and harness their unique strengths. As a globally recognised speaker, he shares his journey and insights, inspiring audiences to reimagine both the present and the future, and to seize new opportunities.

Jason joined Growth Partner as CEO and Managing Partner in September 2023 and has over 15 years’ experience working with consumer and retail brands in multiple markets. He started his working life at J.P. Morgan in Mergers & Acquisitions, followed by joining the Corporate Strategy team at the Woolworths Group (Australasia’s largest retailer), prior to being appointed the General Manager for Strategy and Investments at BBRC, a multi-billion dollar family office focused on retail. Immediately prior to joining us, Jason was a Partner at Active Partners, a leading consumer-focused fund where he spent seven years, during which he led investments in brands across apparel & accessories, beauty, hospitality & leisure, and consumer technology. Jason enjoys partnering with ambitious entrepreneurs who are passionate about creating best-in-class consumer experiences, and is excited to play a role in supporting them realise their plans.

Mitchell is a series entrepreneur with multiple exits under his belt. His previously company Fanbytes, an influencer marketing platform was recently sold in an 8 figure acquisition. Now he is working on Searchland, helping property developers source land to build new homes.

Kate is a founder, organisational development consultant, executive coach and mentor. For over 25 years, Kate has led and nurtured teams in various organisations, enabling them to excel under pressure. She’s seen from the inside and out, how to create engaged, high performing, happy teams. A former Magic Circle solicitor, Kate spent 15 years as an Operations Director in experiential event management, running international events for companies like HSBC, VMWare, Unilever, and managed BBC SPOTY for several years. Kate moved into business transformation and change, helping large organisations thrive. Today, Kate is an award-winning ICF Accredited leadership coach, a PRINCE2agile Practitioner and a 5Voices Master Practitioner, and is also the founder and MD of organisational development consultancy, Meraki People, knowing that 'Nothing Great is Made Alone'. She was recently named as National Coach of the Year at the National Coaching Awards. Kate is one of the cohort facilitators for the Business Leader 'Founders 250', Vice Chair of the IoD Surrey, a member of the Association of British Mentors and a keynote speaker.

Varun Bhanot is the Co-founder & CEO of MAGIC AI (https://magic.fit) MAGIC is the UK's first AI Personal Trainer and was founded in 2021 in the South East. After an extensive period of R&D, MAGIC announced their $2.5m venture capital round in July 2023 led by Fasanara Capital Angel investors into MAGIC also include the CEOs/Senior executives from Spotify, Stripe, Tough Mudder, Facebook, Citigroup, as well as the founders of major British success stories including Citymapper, OLIO, Beamery, Heights, Humanity and Signal AI. Though being a new startup, MAGIC has already attracted a strong team of brand ambassadors and workout content creators including: Former England Cricket Captain and legend Sir Alastair Cook, Former Manchester United and England legend Jesse Lingard, Strictly Come Dancing champion Katya Jones, Team GB's record breaking champions Desiree Henry & Asha Philip, England Rugby’s Celia Quansah. Within their first year of launch, the MAGIC product is already sold in London’s Selfridges and Westfield White City. Varun previously scaled tech startup Hubble from founding to £10m+ in VC funding and built non-for-profit UNHOUSED.ORG. He studied Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School and did his Law undergraduate at the London School of Economics (LSE).

A pragmatic C-Suite leader with over 20 years experience across founder led seed/early stage start ups and large corporates (BlackRock, Barclays). Significant experience leading innovative businesses in the new product/ new market/ new asset class domains.

Simon has a proven track-record for scaling-up businesses, from big corporates including O2 Business, through to the portfolio of ventures he helped co-found as a serial entrepreneur, including One Water, which has generated and donated over £30m to provide clean drinking water across Africa. He served as Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) for the UK Government for three and a half years, reporting to Dept BEIS and currently is EiR at the National Physical Laboratory, the Institute of Cancer Research, and Alantra Capital Finance. He is also a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Health Trust.

Hannah is a former RAF Officer and Great British Entrepreneur of the Year, she steered the skin care brand Toddle from its inception to a thriving multi-channel business, selling in 14 countries, with over 70,000 customers, before exit in 2023. She appeared on the BBC's Dragons' Den, where The BBC dubbed her the "most prepared entrepreneur to ever enter the den,” she secured investments from Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett. Currently, Hannah holds several roles, including as an investor, Non-Executive Director in a tech start-up and as a Growth Strategy Director within a Fintech company. Beyond her board commitments, she runs her own investment consultancy, is a keynote speaker, frequently participating in business panels and podcasts. Her insights into business have lead her to speak on Radio 4 Woman's Hour, BBC 5 Live, and has produced commentary pieces for the Guardian and business publications.

David is a co-founder of Wonderhood Studios and a former Chief Executive of Channel 4 and UKTV. He joined Channel 4 in 2010 and led the team that overhauled Channel 4’s creative output post Big Brother, growing the broadcaster’s revenues and pioneering an innovative viewer engagement strategy driven by audience data and insight. Launched in 2018, Wonderhood Studios works at the intersection of premium content creation for brands, channels and broadcasters. Today, the company is both an award-winning independent producer of original TV and film (Super Surgeons, Evacuation, Trump In Tweets) and a leading independent creative agency producing national campaigns for brands like Three Mobile, Starling Bank, Ineos Automotive and Coral. As CEO of UKTV he masterminded the successful launch of Dave. Previously David worked at Discovery Networks USA where he led the revival of cable channel TLC as its President and General Manager. Before entering broadcasting in 2001, David co-founded the innovative creative agency St Luke’s in 1995. David is a Vice President of The Royal Television Society.